1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a step ladder with ladder legs and a ladder top or platform, foldably connected to the ladder legs and arranged to receive certain tools. The step ladder can be opened into an A-frame state in which it is free standing. The ladder top is molded from a hardenable flowable material such as a curable polymer forming a rigid shape. The ladder top generally comprises an inverted cup shape having a flat central web serving as the platform for placing articles such as tools, paint brushes, containers of paint and so on. The web has a periphery formed with mined-down flanges and an underside formed with ribs that extend between and interconnect the flanges, wherein the flanges and ribs coact to stiffen and/or strengthen the ladder top. The top side of the web has a pair of protruding eye-loops that are spaced and arranged for removably receiving a pair of hooks on a roller pan such that the pan can be cantilevered over the edge of the platform, away from the step side of the ladder.
2. Prior Art
Step ladders are popular in residential and commercial environments to enable users to reach higher on walls, ceilings or the like, for various chores and activities. When not in use, step ladders are folded up or collapsed, to be stored in a closet, hung on a wall hook or the like. Step ladders have pivotable structures connecting the ladder legs for movement between the collapsed flat storage position and an A-frame use position, with means provided to limit opening of the legs to a predetermined angle. Advantageously, the pivoting structure includes a platform or ladder top, which provides a surface on which items can be rested. Ladder tops are arranged with sufficient strength to withstand loads induced by a user standing on a step of the ladder during use. Although not preferred for reasons of stability and safety, the ladder top is typically strong enough that a person can stand on top of it as well. A step ladder, including its ladder top, should be durable and strong to remain stable over a long useful life, but also must be economical.
Ladder tops can include auxiliary features that supplement the basic function of pivotably connecting the ladder legs and forming a platform or top-most step. For example, ladder tops are known with formed holes for receiving and holding the shafts or handles of screwdrivers, hammers, paint brushes and so on.
Various materials can be used for ladder legs, steps and tops. It is known to fabricate ladder tops in a molding process from flowable material that hardens in a relatively rigid shape, such as a thermoset or thermoplastic curable resin, for obtaining a molded ladder top. Molded ladder tops have various advantages over other ladder tops, such as ladder tops stamped from aluminum or made of wood. Polymer material is very inexpensive. It is easily formed to shape, including integrally formed flanges, surface features, tool storage apertures and other aspects that are useful in a ladder top. A polymer ladder top can be made as strong or stronger than stamped a metal one, is comparably light in weight, and is less expensive to manufacture than a stamped and folded sheet metal top. One way to achieve comparable strength is to provide the polymer ladder top with stiffening and/or strengthening elements, such as flanges and ribs, that are less prominent in metal stamped ladder tops.
A polymer ladder top, for example, typically has an overall shape of an inverted-cup, including a central web with a rectangular periphery and depending flanges at the periphery, the flanges being smoothly joined to define a continuous generally-rectangular shape in plan view. Additionally, the typical polymer ladder top includes ribs formed on an underneath side of the web, extending between and intersecting the flanges at oblique angles to further stiffen and/or strengthen the ladder top.
A stamped metal ladder top also typically has peripheral flanges, bent downwardly from a flat sheet and lapped at the corners for attachment with rivets. The flanges of the typical polymer ladder top are relatively larger than stamped metal ones, more particularly being relatively longer-extending and/or thicker than their sheet metal counterparts. The ends of metal flanges can be rolled or folded back to avoid sharp edges, but otherwise strengthening ribs are not employed in metal stamped ladder tops, particularly under the flat central web part of the ladder top.
Step ladders are often used for painting, and can have a pivotable shelf below the ladder top for supporting a paint can. Advantageously, the ladder top and/or the shelf is dimensioned such that a paint roller tray can be secured thereto by the hooks provided on the tray. The hooks of a typical roller tray are provided on the underside of the tray at the higher edge of a sloping end of the tray, for example extending downwardly to a plane common with the bottom of the tray on an opposite, deep end, where the hooks are bent to a right angle. The hooks function as feet when the tray is rested on a flat surface or as hooks when the tray is cantilevered from the edge of a shelf or other surface by grasping the bent ends of the hooks around the underside of the shelf or the like.
Paint roller trays can have two sets of tabs at different vertical positions, one for engaging under the edge of a short thin shelf (e.g., 0.75 inch or 2 cm) and the other for resting vertically on a horizontal surface. It may be convenient depending on the vertical level at which one is painting, to use a paint roller engaged on the pivoting shelf of a step ladder. In situations where the user is higher on the ladder, however, bending over to the shelf to coat the paint roller is not convenient. It is more comfortable in that case to have the roller tray mounted higher as well, namely on the top of the ladder.
The long depending flanges of a molded polymer ladder top typically extend too far downwardly to be encompassed by the hooks of the roller tray, which have a clearance of about two inches (5 cm) from the underside of the tray at the sloping end. The hooks are not long enough to clear the lower terminal edge of the associated flange of the ladder top. Thus, a conventional roller paint-pan cannot be used with a polymer ladder top unless some solution is achieved.
One possibility is to make the flange much thicker to achieve the necessary strength and stiffness. This is not preferred. Another solution has involved forming openings the front one of the depending flanges, the openings being placed below the plane of the web and spaced and arranged to receive the hooks of the conventional roller pan. This weakens the top in that openings are provided in the front flange, and portions of the stiffening ribs on the underside of the web must be eliminated to provide clearance for the paint pan hooks.
Forming holes in the front flange is not a wholly satisfactory solution. The holes are necessarily located at least somewhat lower than the top surface of the ladder top, which causes the tray to tilt back relative to horizontal. It would be more appropriate to tilt, if at all, toward the deep end of the tray, and thereby to better guard against spillage over the shallower edges. Moreover, the disadvantages of weakening the ladder top by holes in the flange and stiffening ribs arguably outweigh the advantage of providing a receptacle for the paint tray. The load-carrying function of the ladder top preferably should not be diminished for reasons of safety and durability.
What is needed is an improved configuration of a polymer ladder top, in particular a configuration that securely receives a roller pan at a desirable orientation, and that does not adversely affect the strength and durability of the ladder top, nor unduly increase its cost.